1. Field
Certain embodiments of the invention relate generally to computer systems, and, more particularly, to registry and file cleaning computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer contains one or more computer files (i.e., files), where a file is a resource that stores data that can be accessed by a computer program that is executed within the computer. A computer also contains a registry, where a registry is a hierarchical database that is stored on the computer and stores configuration settings and options for the computer.
During the lifetime of a computer, thousands of files can end up being stored on the computer. Many of these files may never be used by any software modules that are executed within the computer. Thus, these files are unused files that merely take up storage space of the computer, and potentially slow down the processing speed of the computer. A file cleaning software module, when executed on the computer, can identify unused files and delete them from the computer.
Similarly, during the lifetime of the computer, a registry can become bloated with numerous configuration entries. In certain cases, many of the entries are not used by any computer program. For example, when a new version of a computer program is installed on the computer, the registry may be updated to contain a new entry corresponding to the new version. However, the old entry corresponding to the older version may not be deleted. Thus, a large number of entries in the registry may be superfluous. Similar to a file cleaning software module, a registry cleaning software module, when executed on the computer, can identify unused entries in a registry, and delete them from the registry.